THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN E-FARMING SYSTEM APPLICATION FOR BELLO GOSTU FARMS

ABSTRACT

There are so many farmers in Nigeria with good products, the kind that someone somewhere wants to buy, but one of many problems that buyers face is that they have no access to the poultry producers or don’t even know those products exits. Now, Bello Gostu FarmsApp is an app that is developed to tackle the aforementioned. The purpose of the app is to enable users to surf through and find the available products from all parts of the nation. Also, to tackle the issue of “insufficient funds” as the app provides methods of payment which are Full Payment: Where the buyer pays in full for the products upon collection from the vendor, Dual-instalment Payment: Where the buyer pays for the product within two instalments. The buyer will pay half or more at first, and then eventually pay the rest by Direct Debit upon bank Guarantee before a certain period, and MultiInstalment Payment: Where the user will pay 50% instantly and six subsequent monthly payment of a certain percentage of the agreed price by Direct Debit upon bank Guarantee within six months. Which means the user can pay the other half within the next six months or less depending on how financially sound the customer is (mostly for business owners). The test methodologies that were adopted and used for this are the Waterfall and Agile methodology. Waterfall development methodology was used because the overall architecture from the start to the end boundaries of the app gives a waterfall feel. This is because all the processes involved lead to each other systematically. However, since there are places where there are some unknowns, this will then bring about the use of Agile Development Methodology to design those components of the app. The software was implemented using C# for the logic and SQL server for the backend.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1      Overview

Bello Gostu Farms is a poultry company whose CEO is Bello Gosta. His company wants to tackle the problem of locating, getting information about Agric products. People usually know what they want but don’t know how to find it due to limited resources, time, on so many occasions what a client wants to buy is not really what he/she ends up getting thus, forcing them him to settle for less. Another problem is a client giving or going through someone to get these products for him with huge sum of money only for him to see something different.

BGF (Bello Gostu Farms) app is an online system application to connect with farmers for sales of Agric products. The app provides different payment options for a buyer. There is a Full payment option which allows the user to pay in full for the product directly from the supplier while the Multi-instalment and Dual-instalment methods allows the client to pay for the product overtime. The application allows the user to search for a product by entering its specifics, quantity and if not found, it allows the user to request for that product.

 

1.2      Background and Motivation

In the previous years, the buying, locating, and selling of poultry products were only done manually or face to face, without the involvement of computerized devices in short. One must go to (regardless of how far) a place where the products are sold to find the desired and then purchase.

Finding the right product wasn’t easy because one will have to go to different places to find the cheapest product. But over time with the involvement of computers, locating auto dealers with the desired as well as cheapest products became a lot easier, faster, and exciting.

BGF app is the use of a computer to perform farm related process at a faster rate, more accurate and continuously performing tasks such as collecting, storing, and retrieving records for humans. The main purpose of BGF app is to allow farmers to showcase their products online for easy access to clients, tackle the problems, hence the motivation behind the development of this app.

 

 

1.3      Statement of the Problem

Not all poultry producers can afford an electronic platform for showcasing their products. Some bigtime farmers can pay for such platforms from the scratch and establish their requirements while some regular farmer cannot. The modern poultry industry aims at high production and better quality at a low cost. This, in addition to an increase in the demand for poultry meat, necessitates constant, efficient, and goal-oriented healthcare to prevent the development of diseases. Also, there is the problem of people just rush into poultry farming system without the proper information, while some got information from the wrong source. Some interested buyers have limited or no access to the products they want. BGFA aims to provide a solution to these problems and many more.

1.4      Aim and Objectives

The aim of poultry producers is not to simply process chicken but to successfully sell it.

• Identify the present challenges faced by farmers in Nigeria.
• Design and implement an online system for farmers to showcase their products online to the vast majority of interested buyers.

1.5      Significance of the Project

The implementation of this project has potential to benefit Nigerian society and world in its entirety. This research will create ease to Nigerian and the world in general should they choose to be involved, providing them with easy access to poultry company of their choice, safe and favourable transaction method. Business related processes will be at a faster rate, more accurate and continuously. Also, there will be a succinct report on each phase of the implementation of the project and there will be room for further development and update. This research project is unique among other poultry apps because of its payment methods, thus opens a fresh avenue for research in this area, such that other payment methods can be developed over time which will be in favour of both the buyer and the seller. This project would help in reducing the number of corrupt people in such a way that a potential buyer would not go through another person to buy products instead would buy and pay for it directly. It will help the customers to find their products with less effort and help farmers to advertise their products to customers from different states in Nigeria.

 

1.6      Project Risks Assessment

The Risk analysis can’t be exact. If it were exact, you’d be predicting the future. However, analyzing a potential problem and how it will affect the project is much better than not at all. Tables 1.1 and 1.2 shows the risk and assessment of the project (identified risks and response to tackle such risks) and the Risk Assessment Matrix.

 

Table 1.1: Risk and Assessment of Project

IDENTIFIED RISKS                                                           RESPONSE
Lack of Project Recourses	All necessary and required resources will be made available before the commencement of the project or before it is needed for use.
Project Cost	Project may overrun its budget, therefore room for extra funding if the need arises will created.
Loss of work due to application (IDE) failure, loss, or force majeure.	Weekly data backup to at least 2 or more hard drives.
Software development platform availability (Unavailability of API’s)	Alternative API’s will be searched for and made available. Software requirements will also be identified in good time for possible contentious software.
Inability to carry out research due to hardware/software damage.	Be vigilant and observant of both hardware and software resources. Encrypt resource where possible and necessary to prevent unauthorized access.
Project Delivery	Every possible measure that can ensure the punctual delivery of the software will be taken e.g., consistency and not wasting time. Failure to deliver the software will not occur unless inevitable.

 

Table 1.2: Risk Assessment Matrix

Identified Risk	Likelihood of Occurrence	Difficulty in time Detection	Potential Impact	Overall Risk to Project
Change          of           system requirement by the client	Medium	Medium	High	High
Lack of project resources	Low	Low	Medium	Low
Project cost	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium
Loss of work due to application (IDE) failure, loss, or force majeure	Medium	Medium	High	High
Software development platform availability (Unavailability of API’s)	Medium	Medium	Medium	High
Inability to carry out research due to hardware/software damage.	Low	Medium	Medium	Medium
Project Delivery	Low	Medium	Low	Low

 

SWOT ANALYSIS

This provides information that is useful in comparing the system capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages with the environment in which it operates. It is an instrument in strategy formulation and selection. SWOT analysis shows the categories of risk of this project as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

 

Strength:

• The system should be user friendly to accommodate personnel with less computer experiences.
• To enable the system to go worldwide.
• Bring a competitive environment for farmers to sell their produces at the actual market values.
• To provide a robust and credible platform to ensure users satisfaction.

 

Weaknesses:

• The System may not be able to accommodate large number of traffic due to future expansion of users.
• Create more awareness to the farmers and the buyers who are illiterate.

 

Opportunities:

• Will bring more customers for the sellers.
• Reduce Cost
• Save Time
• It will also help the buyers to have more options will buying the products.

Threats: 

• Prone to computer hackers because it is a web-based system.
• There are similar software’s that are available in the software market.

System might not be fully utilized after implementation.

1.7      Scope / Project Organization

This describes how the chapters of the project are organized. The report consists of five chapters as outlined below:

• Chapter 1: Provides a general overview of what the whole project is all about such as background and motivation, statement of the problem, aims and objectives, significance of the project, and project risk assessment.
• Chapter 2: Provides Literature Review introduction historical overview, related work, and summary.
• Chapter 3: This chapter depicts the Requirement Analysis and Design.
• Chapter 4: This includes the implementation and testing of the project’s components.
• Chapter 5: Discussion, conclusion, and recommendation are in this chapter.
• Finally reference and appendices part is in last part the report.

THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN E-FARMING SYSTEM APPLICATION FOR BELLO GOSTU FARMS

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